Date : 7/4 (Wed) [15:00 - ] @F313
Speaker: Dr. Doris Arzoumanian (Nagoya University)
Title : Observed properties of interstellar filaments and their role in the star formation process
Abstract: The highly filamentary structure of the interstellar medium is impressively revealed by the unprecedented quality and sky coverage of Herschel and Planck images tracing the Galactic cold dust emission. These observations provide the required data to describe in detail the properties of the filamentary structures observed in both quiescent clouds and in star forming regions, where the densest filaments appear to be the main sites of star formation. The omnipresence of filaments in observations as well as in numerical simulations suggests that the formation of filamentary structures is a natural product of the interplay between interstellar shock waves, gravity, and magnetic fields. The detailed description of their observed properties is important to improve our understanding of their formation and evolution process. I will present what we have learned about the properties of the filamentary structures derived from Herschel dust continuum and ground based single dish molecular line observations, and I will discuss the observational constraints on the formation and evolution of molecular filaments, which are the main sites of star formations.